Wells having a production string of tubing that includes vertically spaced side pocket mandrels are used extensively in oil well production operations. Each of the mandrels generally includes an open-topped side pocket that is laterally offset to the side of the mandrel bore. A tool known as a "kick-over" tool is lowered through the tubing on wire line to the level of the mandrel to effect placement or removal of a flow control device in or from the side pocket. The device can be a gas lift valve that includes a dome pressure operated regulator valve, or a "dummy" valve that blocks off the mandrel flow ports, which is held in the pocket by a latch assembly that engages a shoulder above the top of the pocket.
The kickover tools of the prior art are generally activated by pulling dogs on the tool up against a shoulder in the mandrel to release the kickover arm that carries the flow control device. The arm is biased outwardly so that its outward movement aligns the bottom nose of the device with the side pocket of the mandrel. Downward movement and jarring are then used to insert the flow control device into the side pocket and to release the arm from the latch which engages underneath a shoulder to hold the device in the pocket. Since the kickover arm and flow control device are biased outwardly, there is always a considerable risk of the tool being prematurely activated which can cause it to drag and hang up in the tubing.
The general object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved kickover tool having an inward biased arm assembly to provide more reliable and improved operations, such arm having guide means that can be extended to cause outward movement of the arm assembly as the kickover tool is moved upward in the tubing.